Bishop Benedict Joseph Fenwick
ARMS: Sable a Latin cross couped Argent
SOURCE/NOTES & CREDITS: Arms blazon, background illustration and text are from “Armorial of the American Hierarchy”, Volume III, The New England States, the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Boston and Hartford, pages 12-13, by Brother Gerard Brassard, A.A., The Stobbs Press, Worcester, Mass., 1956. The text was adapted by D.Q. Wedvick from the same source and from the Wikipedia internet article.
Benedict Joseph Fenwick was born on 3 September 1782 in Leonardtown, MD, ordained 11 Jun 1808 by Bishop Leonard Neale, coadjutor of Baltimore, he engaged in pastoral work in the Archdiocese of Baltimore 1808-1817, appointed President of Georgetown College 1817, 1820 and the appointed Vicar-general of Charleston, SC. Appointed by Pope Leo XII to the See of Boston on 10 May 1825 and consecrated on 1 November 1825 as its 2nd Bishop by Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal of Baltimore. Bishop Fenwick opened Boston College in 1827 in the basement of the cathedral and later the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA in 1843. Bishop Fenwick died at age of 64 with 21 years as Bhp of Boston on 11 Aug 1846.
The Diocese of Boston continued to have jurisdiction over the states of MA, ME, NH. At the request of Bhp Fenwick, Pope Gregory XVI, detached the area of the States of CT and RI to form the Diocese of Hartford in 1843. dqw 20101117
The artwork is a rendering by John Hamilton Gaylor.
Wedvick Armorial, 150a, Fenwick, 20100531
